Good Day,
I would like to register my distaste for the proposal to allow RAND
licensing of patented technologies, allowing patented tech to be accepted as
standards for the WWW. The web has become a great tool for businesses,
individuals and institutions to share ideas, information, and even sell
products since its inception. Arguably, this is because the standard of the
html language and other standardized forms of communication were free. But
if patented technologies becomes web standards, the growth and vibrance of
the web will be greatly deteriorated. It has been my understanding that a
standard is a framework, or set of rules by which everyone in the game
plays. Proprietary solutions can be found within that framework, but not be
the framework itself. If patented technology is allowed to become a
"standard" on the web, countless companies will be approaching the W3C with
their products trying to become the first and only in their niche. They will
be seeking the profit that can be made from the 1) press and/or prestige and
2) usage that becoming a web standard would bring. The number of
applications will make demands on the W3C which will cause it to expand its
ranks to sift through them all in a timely manner. Representatives from
those corporations will lobby the W3C like the leeches in congress. Becuase
money will become such an integral part of the new web, corruption will
inevitably follow, and the W3C will fall victim just as many of our best
politicians have. Added to this is that the only people/group/organizations
that will benefit from this are the patent holding companies. The public
will not be getting the best product for their money because there cannot be
two proprietary, standard solutions to the same problem, in the same niche,
becuase then they would not nearly be "standard". The public will get a
product that was lobbied the best by its company, that fits best into the
payment scheme, and that cost the least compared to how much it can rake
back in as royalties.
Before you finalize your decision, think of who will benefit from patented
technologies becoming standards, the companies that will make money from
royalties, or the public that will have to pay them?
Keep the web free.
Thank you,
Sincerely,
Barrett Dillow